


Play heroes

by memoriesoflastwords



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, F/M, Hospitals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:41:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27023695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memoriesoflastwords/pseuds/memoriesoflastwords
Summary: Here comes my last day of Writober. I'm so sorry, but I can't find the time to go on.Percy wakes in a hospital room, not remembering how he got there.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson
Kudos: 8
Collections: Writober di Fanwriter.it, Writober2020 di Fanwriter.it





	Play heroes

He felt dizzy when he woke.

Maybe it was the white atmosphere all around him that made him feel lost, maybe just the fact that he had no clue where he was. The room he had back home was not that tidy, nor was the Poseidon room at Camp Half-Blood that bright looking. The little couchette on the Argo II? Barely a good place to sleep.

He blinked once or twice in order to focus on a small calendar by the bed’s side. He couldn’t seem to understand what was written on it besides days and days and some Sundays and crosses on the past days.

“You woke up.”

The person speaking had an accent he didn’t recognize, not at first, not before putting the first piece of the puzzle back in its place. Italy. He was in Italy. Or at least he had been, in the last moments before the darkness had hit him. Before… Before what? He still couldn’t get a hold of that memory.

“Where am I?” he asked, after one or two tries and a perfectly placed cough he needed in order to speak.

“Ospedale Santo Spirito.” the person was a girl with long braided hair and hospital clothes. Despite not knowing the word itself, Percy imagined “ospedale” to mean “hospital”. They didn’t sound too different. “In Rome. You were found bleeding on the road, and brought here for assistance.”

“On the road?” Percy shook his head. No, that was hard to believe, and harder to remember. He was not the brightest kid, some said, but the was intelligent enough to look both ways before crossing the road. And he hadn’t been killed by a Minotaur, so he found it hard to believe a car or motorcycle could have not only hurt him, but also ruined his memory. “Alone?”

She, as well, made a negative movement with her head. “No, you were with a girl. Annabeth? She woke a few hours ago, she was incredibly worried about your well-being.” she stopped, smiled. “She’ll be glad to know you’re okay as well. You probably hit your head, but nothing wrong appeared from the magnetic resonance, so you’re clear to go as soon as you feel a hundred percent okay.”

He’d hit his head. There was something off with the explanation. He still couldn’t remember anything about it. How had that happened? How had he and Annabeth ended up on the road?

“Thank you.” he said, after a long silence, probably an awkward one for the nurse. “When can I see her?”

“Whenever. She on your same floor, but if you find it hard to orientate you can ask a nurse and you’ll be guided. Also…” she spoke quickly, despite her English being modified by the Italian vowel pronunciation. Percy quickly made an ear for it. “Be more careful when you cross the road, next time. You could not be as lucky as you were today.”

He thought about knocking, but in the end, didn’t. The door was open already. Despite wanting to become an architect, Annabeth had a fascination for medicine. Percy understood why she had decided to keep her room’s door wide open.

“Re-thinking your life choices?” he asked, entering, and Annabeth’s eyes lightened up as she turned around, finding him against the door.

“Percy!” she smiled, and slowly got down the bed. She was too smart to do it quickly and risk a pressure decrease. “All my choices but one. How are you? They said you were still asleep, they were scared something had happened to your hea-”

He took her in his arms, caressing her back as she looked at his face with worry, looking for a sign of pain or anything like it. He was not in pain. He was okay, as long as Annabeth was, too. “Nothing bad can happen to an empty head.”

“Idiot.”

They went back to Annabeth’s bed, and sat together in silence for a while as they were both finding it hard to remember what had happened, despite flashes of memory coming back one by one. Annabeth’s fingers played with Percy’s hair, and he remember losing the grip on the same fingers. Percy caressed Annabeth’s neck, and she remember looking up, head tilted back, pain coming in as rhythmically as waves. Annabeth murmured in Percy’s ears everything was all right, and he felt her lips pronouncing a hard felt goodbye. As Percy kissed her forehead and Annabeth closed her eyes, all she remembered was a fall, and then darkness and nothing more but pain. Then the hospital’s light.

“Do you think some god sent us here?” Percy asked, as he kept on playing with a fringe of Annabeth’s t-shirt.

“As a punishment or as some sort of protection?” she dug deeper with her fingers on the white, spotless sheets. “Because it feels like something’s wrong. Like something dangerous has happened to us, and we need to remember it to go on. To finish what we started.”

Percy gave a small nod, at first, then brushed his lips on Annabeth’s nose as a question moved on his tongue, eager. “But what if what happened to us is a warning sign to simply stop and go back home?”

That made her go silent, once more. And maybe she was thinking about that “goodbye” she felt like she had said not long before. Maybe she was thinking about the pain shouting across all her body. Maybe she was thinking heroes never die happy, and if that was a warning, ignoring it meant dying a hero’s tragic death, not necessarily together, not necessarily getting a goodbye, this time.

“What do we do if it is a warning indeed?” she murmured. “Turn our backs on everyone? Pick ourselves first for once doesn’t sound too bad, but what if it means damning everyone else in return?”

They both wanted some ease and tranquility. They had been waiting for it for a long time, now. Yet every time they started thinking things were really settling something new, something wrong, happened. Annabeth found it harder and harder to hope.

Percy tilted his head, put his chin on Annabeth’s left shoulder. “What if it simply means getting to be happy, and safe, and not having to worry about each and every step?”

“It can’t be that easy!” Annabeth shook her head, a small tired breath showing just how tired of the situation she was. “It’s never been as easy as to simply choose and make things go the right way, what makes you think this could be the time?”

“Hope.” he looked down. Hope, indeed, but something else too. Something he’d felt clearly as he’d started remembering in flashes. “And fear. Because I can’t lose you, Annabeth, and I can’t live in wait for the next tragedy.”

Annabeth lowered her stance. No, that was true, living in wait for a tragedy’s climax and not a love’s happy ending was not at all what she imagined out of her teenage years. Yet, she believed her mother wouldn’t allow for her not to have that happy ending, that happiness, at all. She believed things to possibly get better, in the future, for everyone, not just for her and Seaweed Brain. For that belief, she had to go on fighting, and maybe go down fighting as well, and losing two or more battles and find it harder and harder to get back up. For that belief, she had to believe that had been an accident, not a warning sign. For that belief…

“Let’s play heroes just a bit more.” she murmured, kissing Percy’s knuckles as they held each other’s hands. “After all, we always seem to survive, one way or the other.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to support my ongoing project, please consider donating to ko-fi.com/warsgospel ^^


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